Scotland's North Coast 500 (plus a little bit more) in May 2017

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simonw
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Scotland's North Coast 500 (plus a little bit more) in May 2017

Post by simonw »

Inspired by someone (on here, I think) creating a picture gallery using Adobe's (free) Spark application, I strung some photos together of a trip I took round the NC500 with a friend back in May, here: https://spark.adobe.com/page/NNbvlm3JL5LBd/
skinny
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Re: Scotland's North Coast 500 (plus a little bit more) in May 2017

Post by skinny »

Great pics, done it in June and will be back, so much to do and see 5 days was not enough. Done Ben Nevis on the way back, calf's just recovered! Skinny
Tink
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Re: Scotland's North Coast 500 (plus a little bit more) in May 2017

Post by Tink »

Nice ride report that, stunning pictures ๐Ÿ‘... Cheers ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘
Trev
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Re: Scotland's North Coast 500 (plus a little bit more) in May 2017

Post by Trev »

Thanks for posting, just trying Adobe Spark now and looks easy enough for even me to use!

I'm terrible for taking pics but went with my lad to Scotland in April and took a few more than usual, my first stab at a Spark

https://spark.adobe.com/page/cZ0wD3vPmaMwx/
Tink
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Re: Scotland's North Coast 500 (plus a little bit more) in May 2017

Post by Tink »

Trev wrote: โ†‘Fri Dec 29, 2017 10:53 am Thanks for posting, just trying Adobe Spark now and looks easy enough for even me to use!

I'm terrible for taking pics but went with my lad to Scotland in April and took a few more than usual, my first stab at a Spark

https://spark.adobe.com/page/cZ0wD3vPmaMwx/
Great pictures, good to see younger rider๐Ÿ‘.. what bikes are they?
simonw
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Re: Scotland's North Coast 500 (plus a little bit more) in May 2017

Post by simonw »

Thanks all.

The pics were all shot just using an HTC smartphone (mostly in HDR mode). I edited some of the earlier ones (in Darktable running on KDE Neon, for the geeks among you) but stopped as it was taking too long. What took the most time was working out where each one was shot, which involved reviewing some video I shot, reviewing the route, looking at the time each photo was taken, dropping in and out of Google Street View at the points which tied back to the video timing and route timing and noting down each location. Next time I'll turn geo-tagging on!

Five days wasn't quite long enough, but as you can see from the route plans we took lots of dead end roads to see what was at the dead end. Route planning beforehand took ages, and we pre-booked accommodation having heard the route was becoming popular and were worried there wouldn't be anywhere to kip at the end of a long day. We sat nav'd it, but even so it was tricky to know how fast or slow to go so as to not end up at the B&B at 2 in the afternoon, or 11 at night! In fact, the leg to Wick and then later to Torridon we misjudged and ended up in Lidl for tea in Wick and eating the remnants 2 days later in Torridon! We considered camping, but as my compatriot said, getting into wet riding gear the next morning because there's nowhere to dry it out in a tent isn't much fun.

Which brings me to the weather: perfect. It rained about 3 times, on each occasion for just 10-20 minutes, so we were dry again within a half hour. Mostly the weather was as you see in the pics.

The roads were great, the views utterly amazing, spending every day just riding (and stopping to take photos and drink tea) sublime, and to top it off, the weather was exceptional. We've agreed we can't do it again, because it just wouldn't be as good...
Last edited by simonw on Mon Jan 01, 2018 10:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
anthony29040
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Re: Scotland's North Coast 500 (plus a little bit more) in May 2017

Post by anthony29040 »

red eric of this forum posted one just like yours so it was probably him that inspired you to do this.he sorts some great meets in scotland keep a eye out for them.did a great one to ullapool and we did quite a bit of the route you did on the the ride out,well worth going.eric is the bloke that did lejog in a weekend nice work by the way

cheers tony.
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Re: Scotland's North Coast 500 (plus a little bit more) in May 2017

Post by Trev »

Tink wrote: โ†‘Fri Dec 29, 2017 10:59 am
Trev wrote: โ†‘Fri Dec 29, 2017 10:53 am Thanks for posting, just trying Adobe Spark now and looks easy enough for even me to use!

I'm terrible for taking pics but went with my lad to Scotland in April and took a few more than usual, my first stab at a Spark

https://spark.adobe.com/page/cZ0wD3vPmaMwx/
Great pictures, good to see younger rider๐Ÿ‘.. what bikes are they?
My lads was a CBF125 and mine was the Royal Enfield efi. We drove them up in my Citroen Dispatch van as our first stop (Killin) is over 600 miles from where we live (South coast) and the final drive back was 750 miles, we did both up and back trips in one hit which gave us six nights in Scotland Didn't bother to book anything as it was difficult to know where we would end up each day and I hate having to travel to a planned destination, no prob getting accommodation though. My Son passed his A2 in the Summer so we're hoping to get back up again in May this time on his MT03 660, I'll probably need to take the Enfield as will struggle to get another (more suitable) bike in the van along with the MT, so this time it will be me struggling to keep up!
DG
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Re: Scotland's North Coast 500 (plus a little bit more) in May 2017

Post by DG »

Class that pal. Thanks for sharing. May do this later on this year. ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿผ
Running Yorkshire Marathon (AGAIN!) for the National Brain Appeal Please visit my page. Thank you. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/gavin-pickup1
XF650
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Re: Scotland's North Coast 500 (plus a little bit more) in May 2017

Post by XF650 »

Cool! :-)

Recognise many of those shots, very similar to a trip I did back in Sept 2014 when I went from Buxton straight to the Orkneys, then north coast, down the west coast to Applecross and finally back to Buxton on the ol' Suzi VX800. Took 5 days and 1,360 miles and loved every minute of it!

Must do it again methinks...
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